Greenpeace deplores the agreement by the Representatives of the Parties to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) (1) to construct one of the world's largest nuclear fusion experiments in Cadarache, Southern France. The project, estimated to cost 10bn euros, will not generate any electricity, instead it will need massive amounts of energy to heat up.

"With 10 billion, we could build 10,000MW offshore
windfarms,delivering electricity for 7.5 million European
households," said JanVande Putte of Greenpeace International.
Advocates of fusion researchpredict that the first commercial
fusion electricity might be deliveredin 50 to 80 years from now.
But most likely, it will lead to a deadend, as the technical
barriers to be overcome are enormous.

Today, the nuclear industry presents itself as the solution to
climatechange in a massive green-washing drive. Far from being a
solution, thenuclear option stalls real action to combat dangerous
climate change.It is taking away the money for real solutions that
are ready andeconomically available at a large scale, such as wind
energy.

Fusion energy - if it would ever operate - would create a
serious wasteproblem, would emit large amounts of radioactive
material and could beused to produce materials for nuclear weapons.
A whole new set ofnuclear risks would thus be created.

"Governments should not waste our money on a dangerous toy which
willnever deliver any useful energy," said Jan Vande Putte of
GreenpeaceInternational. Instead, they should invest in renewable
energy which isabundantly available, not in 2080 but today"